"In architecture, the effect of color is rarely neutral. It has the power to calm or energize, to expand or compress space, to unify or divide. Far from solely being a decorative layer, color is a tool that architects, interior designers, and designers use to structure atmosphere and perception. Alongside light, material, and proportion, it is one of the most precise instruments available for guiding spatial experience."
"When treated deliberately, it becomes a system - one that allows designers to articulate relationships between spaces, establish moods, and create continuity across various scales. Color is not limited to paint. Surfaces, materials, finishes, and technical elements all carry chromatic weight. Yet in practice, color often remains uneven across the finest details - switches, sockets, intercoms - frequently appearing as neutral interruptions."
"Few have explored this as systematically as Swiss-French architect and artist Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier. His Polychromie Architecturale, developed in 1931 and expanded in 1959, offers a palette of 63 finely tuned architectural colors designed as a coherent system rather than a set of isolated tones. Rooted in natural pigments, these colors were organized into series and keyboards, allowing architects and designers to combine them harmoniously to evoke specific moods and atmospheric effects - calm, vibrant, or expansive."
Color in architecture actively shapes mood, perception, and spatial scale, serving alongside light, material, and proportion as a precise instrument for guiding experience. When deployed deliberately, color becomes a systematic language that articulates relationships between spaces, establishes moods, and creates continuity across scales. Chromatic consideration extends beyond paint to surfaces, materials, finishes, and technical elements, each carrying visual weight. Small components such as switches, sockets, and intercoms often remain neutral interruptions, undermining cohesion. Extending Le Corbusier’s Polychromie Architecturale to technical fittings integrates electrical installations into the chromatic system, allowing essential building elements to harmonize with surrounding architecture.
Read at ArchDaily
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